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By A. OUTRAM SHERMAN 




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THOMAS PAINE 

THE PATRIOT 



11 



AN ADDRESS BY 

A. OUTRAM SHERMAN 



a 



'Delivered before 

T HE HUGUENOT SOCIETY OF NEW ROCHELLE, N. Y. 

At the Opening of the Paine House July 14, 1910 

PRICE 20 CENTS 



Special Library Edition printed for the Thomas Paine National Historical Society 
120 Lexington Avenue, New York City 



C^ 






Westchester Press, Publishers 
Rye, N. Y. 



By transfei 

APR 20 1915 






THOMAS PAINE, THE PATRIOT 




PATRIOT is defined as one who loves his country, 
and the distinction has been generally won by those 
who have borne arms and risked life, liberty and 
property for such a noble sentiment. All this Thcunas 
Paine did, and more; he not only risked but suffered in life and 
liberty and gave his property without stint. The common vir- 
tue of physical bravery was his also but he counted as trifling 
and ordinary duty his acts of bravery while bearing arms. As 
his heroism was more complete, more glorious, his patriotism 
was broader, deeper, more intense, — great as his country, which 
was the world. He fought the battles of mankind with his 
mighty pen. Wherever tyranny and oppression stood against 
liberty, justice, and the rights of man, he advanced with his 
potent weapon, not from security nor by stealth but in the open 
where the vengeance of the mighty sought ever to tear him 
down. England's proud navy ploughed up and down the ocean 
in impotent rage for years with the one object of capturing 
this man who had made her king tremble on his throne. Paine's 
life-long friend and patron who introduced him to America was 
the great patriot — Benjamin Franklin — who loved America be- 
cause here he had won recognition, honor and advancement in 
life, but Paine came to her while she was in distress, he owed 
her nothing, but her misery roused his love. Franklin said to 
him: "Where liberty is, there is my country." Paine replied: 
"Where liberty is not, there is mine," and his whole life proves 
he spoke truly. "Perhaps America would feel the less obliga- 
tion to me," he said, "did she know that it was neither the place 
nor the people but the cause itself that irresistibly engaged me 
in its support; for I should have acted the same part in any 
other country could the same circumstances have arisen there 
which have happened here." This declaration he made before 
he had finished his service for American independence ; he 



proved that it was no idle boast for thereafter he aroused Eng- 
land "through the channels of the press," which he declared to 
be "the tongue of the world," by his Rights of Man. France, 
however, became aflame for liberty and thither he rushed to 
fan the fire that already burned too fast and soon consumed 
friends and foes alike and in its fury nearly annihiliated him. 

But this wonderful man, seemed never to allow injury to 
himself to stay his efforts to accomplish his aim, which was 
to thwart tyranny and oppression in every direction and to 
establish the principles of human liberty and progress. To 
spread knowledge of such principles was his great object. "Ig- 
norance is of a peculiar nature;" he wrote "once dispelled it is 
impossible to re-establish it. It is not originally a thing of it- 
self, but is only the absence of knowledge, and though a man 
may be kept ignorant, he cannot be made ignorant. * * There 
does not exist in the compass of language an arrangement of 
words to express so much as the means of effecting * * an 
obliteration of knowledge, and it has never yet been discovered 
how to make a man unknow his knowledge, or unthink his 
thoughts. * * Already the conviction that government by repre- 
sentation is the true system of government is spreading itself 
fast in the world," he declared as he prepared to leave France, 
and wrote : "An army of principles will penetrate where an 
army of soldiers cannot; it will succeed where diplomatic man- 
agement would fail; it is neither the Rhine, the Channel, nor 
the ocean that can arrest its progress; it will march on the 
horizon of the world, and it will conquer." 

I will strive to show, briefly, as I must, how Paine mar- 
shalled such an army; how he armed it with unanswerable argu- 
ments; how he lead it in attack against entrenched and forti- 
fied error; how, with the sword of sarcasm, the dagger of ridi- 
cule, the poniard of wit he hurled his army against established 
oppression and hereditary rule, how his principles conquered 
and how they penetrated, as he declared they would, into every 
land; how his army is still marching on, and how today it has 
reached, as he prophesied, the horizon of the world, — for China 
is now considering a constitutional government, the establish- 
ment of which by all mankind, it was Paine's first and life-long 
endeavor to promote. 

It will be possible in this short paper to mention, only in 



the briefest manner, the many achievements of "Paine the 
patriot" and if I can rouse your interest enough to lead you 
to read his life, as written by the late historian Moncure D. 
Conway, I shall be well satisfied. That scholarly and impartial 
book will give you an entirely different idea of the man, con- 
cerning whom the author writes: "The educated ignorance is 
astounding." Paine's relentless attacks upon old authorities in 
power, and officials that he thought in the wrong brought him 
most powerful enemies who found ready agents in his religious 
opponents to revenge them upon his memory; Thomas Jeffer- 
son, between whom and Paine there was an unbroken mutual 
admiration, said that Paine's political enemies were his bitter- 
est. The first life of Thomas Paine to appear after his death 
was written by a man, who was defendant in a suit for libel 
brought by Paine against him and which was pending at the 
time of Paine's death. This book, in the main a barefaced 
falsehood, most cunningly, most cruelly concocted to blight his 
fame has been quoted and copied into histories. Deeds of 
charity and noble self-denial are therein made to appear crimes. 
Here in our county Bolton, the historian of Paine's last home 
community, mentions with a sneer an act of Paine's which if 
truly stated was more than what Christ described as : "Greater 
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for 
his friends." Warned of his danger; told it would mean his 
death, conscious of the guillotine's incessant falling on victim 
after victim guilty of nothing but of incurring Robespierre's 
anger, in the presence of that murderer and the blood-thirsty 
crew of the French convention in uproar, demanding Louis 
XVI's head, Thomas Paine thus offers his life not for his own 
friend but for the friend of our country by opposing the death 
of Louis. "Ah, Citizens, give not the tyrant of England," he 
said, "the triumph of seeing the man perish on the scaffold 
who had aided my much-loved America to break his chains!'' 
Friends and neighbors — all that your children have been 
told of this act of almost sublime nobility, by a resident of this 
town and county, in our local history is this : "He was a com- 
panion of the detested Robespierre and was on the trial of the 
innocent Louis XVI." As well, as truthfully, as fairly say, 
"Washington was a companion of the traitor Benedict Arnold 
and was connected with the trial of the unfortunate Andre." 




THOMAS PAINE. 



Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England, January 27, 
1737, of Quaker parentage. It is surprising that it was pos- 
sible for him to acquire the broad knowledge and clear insight 
into the wide range of subjects that his writings and inven- 
tions prove he possessed, when we consider the poverty and 
severe struggles of his youth. He was removed from school 
at the age of thirteen to be taught the trade of a stay-maker 
and he was afterwards an excise man. From this office he 
was dismissed for irregularity in reporting on importations 
without actually surveying the articles but in his petition for 
restoration to office, which was granted, he stated : "No com- 
plaint of the least dishonesty or intemperance ever appeared 
against me." He championed the cause of his fellow excise- 
men and sought to petition Parliament in their behalf. While 
thus engaged he was removed again for "quitting his business 
without leave.'' Though no dishonor is to be attached to his 
conduct, you will find his libelers ignoring the records and stat- 
ing that he was dismissed for dishonesty. While in London he 
had an opportunity to study the workings of Government. He 
met there Goldsmith and Benjamin Franklin. The latter recog- 
nizing his ability, induced him to go to America, giving him a 
letter of introduction to his son-in-law. 

Once in America, Paine's inborn love of liberty, his almost 
quixotic desire to right every wrong that afflicted mankind was 
roused into action by the opportunity the discontent of the Am- 
erican Colonies against Great Britain afforded. Let me, from his 
writings take extracts to show how his mind worked, stirred 
by his heart beating for his fellow men, yet always controlled 
by logic and almost mathematical exactness to the laws of 
justice. He writes in First Principles of Government : "It is by 
tracing things to their origin that we learn to understand thi*m ; 
and it is by keeping that line and that origin always in view that 
we never forget them," and again, "Rights become duties by re- 
ciprocity. The right which I enjoy becomes my duty to guaran- 
tee it to another and he to me" and "He that would make his 
own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression, 
for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will 
reach to himself," and "when all other rights are taken away, 
the right of rebellion is made perfect." 

In conformity to his reason and his fairness, Paine's first 



essay, "Justice and Humanity" was an appeal for the abolition 
of slavery throughout the colonies. He asks them "with what 
consistency or decency they complain so loudly of attempts to 
enslave them, while they hold so many hundreds in slavery." 
Thushe was the first Abolitionist. He soon afterwards partly 
drew and signed the Pennsylvania Act abolishing slavery. 

Next we find him writing: "If we take a survey of ages 
and of countries, we shall find the women, almost without ex- 
ception — at all times and in all places, adored and oppressed 
* * affronted in one country by polygamy, which gives them 
their rivals for inseparable companions; enslaved in another by 
indissoluble ties, which often join the gentle to the rude, and 
sensibility to brutality. Even in countries where they may be 
esteemed most happy, constrained in their desires in the dis- 
posal of their goods, robbed of freedom of will by the laws, the 
slaves of opinion, which rules them with absolute sway. Such, 
I am sorry to say is the lot of women over the whole earth." 
Before his mighty plea for freedom of government, he made an 
appeal for the lowly negro, and he sought to elevate to her 
true station the better half of humanity. Two principles of 
justice he armed and enlisted in his army of principles. One 
has already conquered, one still is fighting on. 

On October 18, 1775, writing again of Great Britain's in- 
troduction of slavery into the colonies he declares, "when I re- 
flect on these, I hesitate not for a moment to believe that the 
Almighty will finally separate America from Britain. Call it 
Independence or what you will, it is the cause of God and hu- 
manity. It will go on. And when the Almighty shall have blest 
us, and made us a people dependent only upon Him, then may 
our first gratitude be shown by an act of continental legisla- 
tion, which shall put a stop to the importation of negroes for 
■sale, soften the hard fate of those already here, and in time 
procure their freedom.'' This was the earliest anticipation of 
the Declaration of Independence eight months before July 4, 
1776, but it was more, — it was the anticipation of the Proclama- 
tion of Emancipation eighty-six years before Lincoln issued it. 
We glory, as well we may, in the great Declaration of our 
fathers of their freedom, but if they had coupled with it the 
grant of freedom to their bondsmen, what added lustre would 
have enshrined the names of the old thirteen colonies, what 

8 



suffering humanity would have been spared, what sorrow, 
blood and treasure would have been saved ! 

Through these writings, Paine had become known. Ed- 
mund Randolph, our first Attorney General, who had been on 
Washington's staff at the beginning of the war, and conducted 
much of his correspondence, ascribed Independence primarily to 
George III. but next to "Thomas Paine, an Englishman by 
birth, and possessing an imagination which happily combined 
political topics, poured forth in a style hitherto unknown on this 
side of the Atlantic, from the ease with which it insinuated itself 
into the hearts of the people who were unlearned, or of the 
learned." 

On January 10, 1776, Paine issued his great pamphlet 
"Common Sense." The unanimous testimony of every con- 
temporary of his proves that the effect of this document has 
never been paralleled in literary history. Washington wrote 
on receiving a copy "A few more such flaming arguments as 
were exhibited at Falmouth and Norfolk added to the sound 
doctrine and unanswerable reasoning contained in the pamph- 
let 'Common Sense' will leave numbers at a loss to decide upon 
the propriety of separation." 

Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, wrote of Paine's political writings : "They burst from the 
press with an effect that has rarely been produced by type and 
paper in any age or country. Gen. Lee said: "He has genius 
in his eyes," and "I own he has convinced me." Joseph Haw- 
ley writes (February 18, 1776, to Eldridge Gerry): "I have 
read the pamphlet, entitled, 'Common Sense, Addressed to the 
Inhabitants of America,' and every sentiment has sunk into my 
well-prepared heart." Franklin said: "It has had a prodigious 
effect.'' Ramsay the historian said: "He deserves a statue of 
gold." John Adams writes to his wife : "I sent you a pamphlet 
entitled 'Common Sense,' written in vindication of doctrines, 
which there is reason to expect, that the further encroachments 
of tyranny and depredations of oppression will soon make the 
common faith." That brilliant woman, after the receipt of the 
pamphlet, wrote: "'Common Sense,' like a ray of revelation, 
has come in season to clear our doubts and fix our choice." 
John Winthrop said: "If Congress should adopt its sentiments, 
it would satisfy the people." "Colonel Gadsden brought the 

9 



first copy of 'Common Sense' into Congress March 8th," says 
Hazelton in his late history, "and boldly declared himself in 
favor of Independence.'' The members had no thought of it and 
his statement came like an "explosion of thunder.'' Adam's 
"Life of Gallatin" says : "It is now almost forgotten that 
Thomas Paine in 1787, before he went to Paris, was a fashion- 
able member of society, admired and courted as the greatest 
literary genius of the day." Samuel Adams wrote to Paine: 
"Your 'Common Sense' and your 'Crisis' unquestionably awaked 
the public mind and led the people loudly to call for a declara- 
tion of our national independence. I therefore esteem you as 
a warm friend to the liberty — and lasting welfare of the human 
race." 

James Madison wrote Washington concerning Paine: 
"Should it finally appear that the merits of the man, whose 
writings have so much contributed to infuse and foster the 
spirit of Independence in the people of America, are unable to 
inspire them with a just beneficence, the world it is to be feared, 
will give us as little credit for our policy as for our gratitude 
in this particular." The Constitutional Gazette of February 
24, 1776 declared: "The pamphlet entitled 'Common Sense' is 
indeed a wonderful production. It is completely calculated for 
the meridian of North America. The author introduces a new 
system of politics as widely different from the old, as the Coper- 
nican system is to the Ptolemaic. The blood wantonly spilt by 
the British troops at Lexington gave birth to this extraordin- 
ary performance, which contains as surprising a discovery in 
politics as the works of Sir Isaac Newton do in philosophy. 

"This animated piece dispels, with irresistible energy, the 
prejudice of the mind against the doctrine of independence, and 
pours in upon it such an inundation of light and truth, as will 
produce an instantaneous and marvelous change of temper in 
the views and feeling of an American." 

Those of you who have never read Paine's "Common 
Sense" have skipped the Genesis of America's Bible, and when 
you study the Declaration of Independence and the Constitu- 
tion of these United States you are reading largely a repetition 
of his thoughts, an embodiment of his ideas, the execution of 
his suggestions, for the plan and ground work of both he en- 
ters into in "Common Sense." He suggested the method of 

TO 



calling the Constitutional Convention and many of the principles 
therein adopted. Indeed it is extraordinary the field he cov- 
ered in this famous pamphlet and ideas there advanced, often 
quoted by others, have been credited to them as their original 
thoughts. For instance he wrote : "As Europe is our market 
for trade, we ought to form no partial connection with any 
part of it. It is the true interest of America to steer clear of 
European contentions." Washington in his farewell address 
used nearly these same words, and it has become a text for 
our public speakers who credit it to Washington, never to its 
real author. 

By letters in the press Paine supported his first pamphlet 
from attack, with more burning arguments, encouraging the 
faltering, stirring the dormant into patriotic action. Then 
came the declaration, then came the war. "I am thus far a 
Quaker that I would gladly agree with all the world to lay 
aside the use of arms, and settle matters by negotiation; but 
unless the whole will, the matter ends and I take up my mus- 
ket and thank Heaven he has put it in my power," he said, 
and he enlisted in the Flying Camp of ten thousand men who 
were to be sent wherever needed. The enlistment was a brief 
one and when it expired Paine at once enlistd again and was 
appointed Aide de Camp under General Greene. Continually 
under fire, signal acts of bravery are recorded of him. Rowing in 
an open boat during a cannonade from Fort Mercer to Fort 
Mifflin is one. He was with Washington at Valley Forge. 
Marching by night and day he still wielded his weapon, the pen, 
so much mightier than his sword. While bearing all the bur- 
den of the soldier he wrote his Crisis. It was read by Wash- 
ington's order, to every Corporal's Guard in the army and 
those bare-foot and disheartened soldiers listened to the words 
not as coming from an agitator writing in security and seclu- 
sion, but from a comrade, whom they knew was bearing the 
brunt and danger with themselves. "These are the times that 
try men's souls," a tried soul had written, and their roused 
spirits cheered the man, as well as his immortal words. I can- 
not go into detail. Read them, the thirteen Crises of Paine. By 
Washington the orders were given, Paine inspired his fol- 
lowers to obey. 

April 17, 1777 Congress elected Paine Secretary to the Com- 

11 




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mittee of Foreign Affairs, beside which he undertook to report 
to the Pennsylvania Council intelligence of Washington's army, 
and keeping up his literary work besides, he still found time to 
write constantly to members of Congress on many subjects. 
The Silas Deane incident, which led to Paine's resignation of 
his secretaryship of the Foreign Relations Committee, though 
it detracts from his ability as a diplomat, which in fact he was 
not, and by his temperament never could have been, does not 
reflect on his nobleness of character, but rather brings into re- 
lief the simple truthfulness of his nature. The whole incident 
about which volumes have been written is not to this day clear. 
A million lires had been paid to Beaumarchais before Deane 
reached France and six months before Franklin arrived there. 
Beaumarchais confided the fact to Arthur Lee, the secret agent 
of Congress in London and also the fact that it was to appear 
as a commercial transaction and it was to be reported that 
tobacco would be paid for the advance. Lee so understood and 
informed Paine. Beaumarchais afterwards attempted to actu- 
ally collect and Deane tried to aid him. 

That the advance was a gift, was to be kept a secret even 
from the body of Congress, to protect the French King from 
the charge of breaking his treaty arrangement with England. 
Paine by his oath of office was sworn to disclose no matter, the 
knowledge of which was acquired in consequence of his office, 
"that he shall be directed to keep secret." Concerning this 
matter he had received no such instruction, and when Silas 
Deane rushed into print in support of himself and Beaumarchais, 
Paine replied stating the facts as he knew them. The French 
Minister at once appealed to Congress to save Louis from em- 
barrassment with England. Congress summoned Paine and 
asked him one question: "Did you write this article?" On his 
replying that he was the author, he was asked to retire from 
the hearing. He wrote demanding that he be heard further. 
"I have obtained fame, honor, and credit in this country. I 
am proud of these honors. * * they cannot be taken from me 
by unjust censure grounded on a concealed charge." The sub- 
ject simply had to be kept quiet, Paine received no further 
hearing, Deane's friends moved his dismissal but this was 
voted against. He however sent in his resignation in writing, 
which is of record, but in spite of that fact, all his libelers state 

14 



that he was dismissed but the truth is indisputably as he stated 
in his letter of resignation: "As I came into office an honest 
man, I go out of it with the same character.'' 

Though Paine was not allowed to disclose more before 
Congress M. Gerard, the French Minister, knew Paine's power 
and tried to retain him and offered him a salary, to employ 
his pen to impress the people in favor of France. M. Gerard 
wrote his superior in France: "You know too well the prodigi- 
ous effect produced by the writings of this famous personage 
among the people of the States to cause me any fear of your 
disapproval of my resolution," which was to retain Paine, but 
Paine felt great repugnance at being in any way a paid writer. 
He afterward wrote of this incident and stated: "My answer 
to the offer was precisely in these words, 'any service I can 
render to either of the countries in alliance, or to both, I ever 
have done and shall readily do, and M. Gerard's esteem will be 
the only compensation I shall desire." This esteem however 
he did not get as the wily diplomat took offense and retaliated 
by misrepresenting Paine, and abusing him. Paine however, 
at once published the offer made to him. 

According to English information Gerard himself was 
personally interested in the payment for the supplies and had 
private reasons for resisting Paine's theory of their gratuitous 
character. "Whatever might be thought of Paine's course in 
the Deane-Beaumarchais affair," writes Mr. Conway, "there 
could be no doubt that the country was saved from a question- 
able payment unjustly pressed at a time when it must have 
crippled the Revolution for which the French subsidies were 
given. Congress was relieved, and he who relieved it was the 
sufferer." Paine had lost the most important secretaryship but 
his patriotic interest continued, though he wrote to Henry 
Laurens, that at last he would have to think of himself as well 
as others, and he planned to publish his writings in two vol- 
umes. This was in 1779. During this year he wrote to the 
Press that if Great Britain should come to terms of peace "to 
leave the fisheries wholly out on any pretense whatever, is to 
sow the seed of another war." This man certainly had almost 
the power of prophecy. In 1783 he went to Rhode Island and 
carried on a campaign in the press there, to induce that state 
to pay the quota allotted to her by the Continental Congress 

15 



which she was withholding. Robert Morris and others in- 
duced him to undertake the mission and saw that he was paid. 
I have lately seen an unpublished autograph letter of Paine's 
written to Morris from Providence in which he states : "There 
is one idea which occurs very strongly to me, which will finally 
show the extreme ill policy of Rhode Island. The fisheries, in. 
all probability will be the last and most difficult point to settle 
in a negociation and yet this foolish state, which has so great 
a dependence on them, is creating a necessity for clos- 
ing with the best terms of peace that can be first ob- 
tained." The fisheries would be "the seeds of another 
war." It came. "The point would be last to be set- 
tled." As we are gathered here one hundred and seven years 
after he wrote this letter, our representatives are discussing 
this "last point" with England in a court of arbitration, another 
fond dream of Thomas Paine's. In his "Rights of Man" he 
records that Henry IV. of France whom he describes us "a 
man of enlarged and benevolent heart" suggested such a court 
in the year 1610. Paine discussed and enlarged the idea in his 
writings. The year 1779 was a year of poverty to the man 
whose writings were, the while, having a sale, to use his own 
words, which are verified by the evidence on every hand, "most 
rapid and extensive of anything that was ever published in this 
country, or perhaps any other. The single pamphlet 'Com- 
mon Sense' would, at that time of day, have produced a toler- 
able fortune," but he gave it to his country without profit 
to himself. Finally however he was elected, at a small salary, 
Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and the following year 
1780, Washington's letter telling of the distress of his army, 
Paine read to the Assembly. Five hundred dollars was then 
due him in salary. He drew it, enclosed it in a letter on June 
8, to M'Clenaghan advising others to subscribe and showing 
the wisdom it would be for the rich to do so. The subscrip- 
tion spread. Three hundred thousand pounds were raised and 
the bank founded, which was incorporated by Congress in De- 
cember 2 1 st following. 

The financial power of America is now the greatest in 
the world, as her rivers whose mighty flow exceeds in volume 
when they reach the seas the floods of other lands, but the 
source of each, if we would find it, is hidden away in some pure 

16 



unnoticed spring, starting from the bosom of the hills up amid 
the clouds, and so the beginning of our great financial strength 
started from a pure, generous but forgotten act that sprang 
from the patriotic impulse in the heart of Thomas Paine. 

In this year Paine wrote an article entitled "Public Good," 
in which he showed that the Virginia Colony was wrong in its 
contention as to public lands,. The truth and logic of his state- 




PAINE HOUSE. 

House built by Thomas Paine on the farm presented to him by the State 

of New York for his patriotic services. 



ments were admitted even by Virginians, but later the politi- 
cians defeated a grant to him by that state in retaliation for 
his pointing out the error of their ways. Madison deplored this 
refusal to reward Paine in the letter to Washington from which 
I have quoted. Paine also this year wrote to the Count de 
Vergennes in France an account of America's distress for 
money and asked for French aid. This letter was shown to 
the French legation and led Congress to appoint Col. John Lau- 
rens, one of Washington's aids, to visit France. He agreed to 
go if Paine would accompany him. Paine consented. They 

17 



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9t coffir jonmt to 

It e to nmderstaiud the 

va ] u , this day. Bib writings read even jet r 

st j r t i ie -ition of an American. Bnt 

the best ev *e ^ the unequivocal and 

mmiffi® men of Ms times. Frank- 

that great charac- 
ter had | id md asked him to write a history of our Revo- 
lution. TL '» collection of letters, which 
were tl tdtnee with all the great mei 
fimdj 1 mes. 

What a 

cri1f : then to flames, 

!,,' I. , Vh, what 

I m,,.,,,,,,,,-'!' '.u'h tonguei '-ni never talk and in this case 

thr 7 hi - §tri< i •■«■». hiitoi v dumb 

Ft [§ n ,,i within in-/ t<- -t \<> reftl t© Paine's inventive genius; 
i M , M1 ,i,,,.,iM 7 with tl"- early experimenters in steam naviga- 
tion . in-, priority oi lug^iitioii and his acquaintance with 
ii r|)lv .,,i. i Pulton and Livingston; his letter on "the terms 
attraction oi cohesion," which anticipated modern thought; his 
,,.„. bridge; i" planing machine, As the turbine principle of 

applieal i iteatn to the wheel in the steamboat was his 

,,1,., ( ,i in, propel theory, so always his thoughts seemed to 
M1M i ... beyond i" •'•■.«' In •• letter to Jefferson in t8oi, he 
, h .,,, , ,. -,,„ ,„„,.r„iri,t" the means oi generating motion for 



.:; 



mechanical uses and writes: "The thing wanted is something 

to contain the greatest quantity off power in the least quantity 
off weight, * * iff the power which an ounce of gun powder con- 
tains could be detailed out so as to act with equal force thro* 
a given time as steam or water can be, it would be a most 
commodious natural power because of its small weight and 
little bulk * * might not gun powder be mixed with some other 



.■.'■.' ..".' :' ■. ' ■ . ■ V '■■ 




Rear view of Paine House since it's removal to a spot within a tew 
of Paine's grave. 



lids 



material?" The explosive engines, which now drive machines 
over highways and waters and through the air, are the perfec- 
tion of Paine's explosive power. Gun powder was the only 
familiar substance, and to others it represented only an agent 
of war, but Paine writes: "When 1 consider the wisdom of Na- 
ture I must think that she endowed matter with this extraor- 
dinary property for other purposes than that of destruction." 
For his confidence in her beneficence Nature seems to have 
whispered to him her secrets as Time unrolled to his discerning 
thoughts, tales she meant not to disclose to others for ages. 

19 



America was free. Paine was unembarrassed by pecuniary 
wants, "A fashionable member of society admired and courted 
as the greatest literary light of his day." But the world was 
his country and he must be ever stirring in its cause. He went 
to England and became intimate with Burke, America's friend, 
and with many men in public life. He then went to Paris. 
The French Revolution came on, he believed it would be pro- 
ductive of good. "I have seen enough of war to wish it might 
never more have existence in the world," he wrote Jefferson. 
Burke wrote a pamphlet against the French Revolution and in 
favor of monarchy. Paine took up his pen to reply and began 
his "Rights of Man." "From the part Burke took in the Ameri- 
can Revolution it was natural I should consider him a friend 
of mankind.'' "The Rights of Man" is one of Paine's great 
master-pieces, full of wisdom and originality, it cuts to the 
quick the hereditary aristocracy. "There never did, there never 
will, and there cannot exist a Parliament of any description of 
men or any generation of men in any country, possessed of the 
right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the 
end of time * * I am not contending for or against any form of 
government, nor for nor against any party, here or elsewhere. 
That which a whole nation chooses to do, it has a right to 
do!" Rousseau's writings had been studied by Paine as they 
had by most of the founders of this republic, as is evinced by 
numerous references found in the letters and documents of the 
times. But the " 'Rights of Man' was the earliest complete 
statement of republican principles" in Mr. Conway's opinion. 

England has since enacted into her laws some of the recom- 
mendations it contained. 

England was in an uproar. By direction of the authorities 
the book was burned, its author also in effigy. The publisher 
was arrested and was to be tried for sedition. The hereditary 
title holders immediately called meetings to denounce Paine 
and his publisher. In one instance a Lord Onslow presided 
over a meeting of the gentry, he was a bed-chamber Lord, a 
sinecure paying 1,000 pounds with a pension of 3,000 pounds. 
Paine sent to the meeting a hundred copies of his book and 
as an illustration of the severity and cutting nature of his at- 
tacks when roused, let me quote an abstract from his letter 
to Lord Onslow: "What honor or happiness you can derive 

20 



from being- the principal pauper of the neighborhood and oc- 
casioning a greater expense than the poor, the aged, and the 
infirm for ten miles round, I leave you to enjoy. At the same 
time I can see that it is no wonder you should be strenuous 
in suppressing a book which strikes at the root of these abuses." 
But while royalty was aghast, the people sang: 

"God save the Rights of Man! 
Give him a heart to scan 

Blessings so dear 
Let them be spread around, 
Wherever Man is found, 
And with the welcome sound 

Ravish his ear! 

God save great Thomas Paine, 
His Rights of Man proclaim 
From pole to pole." 

But France called him, he crossed the Channel and three 
departments elected him to represent them in the convention. 
I have mentioned his heroic stand to save the life of Louis XVI. 
"Kill the King," he said, "but save the Man." Gouverneur 
Morris was the American minister to France ; it is a long story, 
how his secret instructions conflicted with Paine's hearty and 
open love for America's ally, how Morris virtually acquiesced 
in his imprisonment by Robespierre, as a foreigner, and how 
Morris misled Washington to believe he had demanded Paine's 
release as an American, how he misled Paine to believe that 
Washington had given no directions that Paine be so reclaimed. 

These cruel subterfuges, on Morris's part, led Paine after- 
wards to write his severe and regrettable letter to Washington, 
who received it without understanding why it was addressed 
to him. So that these two great and good men, who had 
fought and worked in confidence and side by side for humanity, 
died misunderstanding each other, each distressed and puzzled 
at the other's conduct. Paine trusted Morris but the truth was 
as he said: "A treacherous friend in power is the most danger- 
ous of enemies." For nearly eight months Robespierre kept 
Paine in prison as a foreigner, although France had with enthu- 

21 



siasm conferred upon him the title of "citizen." In England he 
was outlawed for his "Rights of Man," written in reply to 
Burke's attack on France. In the United States of America, — 
Paine was the first to write the name, — his title to citizenship 
was the same as Washington's and the other patriots'. Yet 
the great apostle of liberty remained in prison. He has writ- 
ten a description of the awful times. He tells of how one hun- 
dred and sixty-eight persons were taken out of the Luxem- 
bourg in one night and all but eight guillotined the next day 
and he describes how he and his three room mates escaped. 
The guards used to mark the number to be taken from the dif- 
ferent rooms. The door of Paine's room was opened back 
against the wall when marked, and at night being closed, the 
mark was on the wrong side and not seen. Robespierre fell, 
Monroe replaced Morris as minister and he bent every energy 
to get Paine released. He took him to his house and nursed him 
back to health, for when he left prison, Monroe wrote, his 
health was such that he could not live longer than a month, 
he thought, at the furthest. "I shall pay the utmost attention 
to this gentleman, as he is one of those whose merits in our 
Revolution were most distinguished," he Wrote. 

Paine, after a long wait to recover his health and to avoid 
England's patrolling fleet in the Channel, returned to America. 
In the meantime, while under the shadow of the guillotine, he 
had written the First Part of the Age of Reason, and it was 
while hovering between life and death that he wrote the Sec- 
ond Part. He wrote, he said, primarily to stop the headlong 
rush into infidelity in France, for he was a most devoted Deist. 
"Several of my colleagues have given me the example of mak- 
ing their individual profession of faith. I also will make mine," 
he wrote. "I believe in one God, and no more, and I hope for 
happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of Man, and 
I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving 
mercy and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy.'' 
The lawyer asked Christ, saying "Master, which is the great 
commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul 
and with all thy mind. 

"This is the first and great commandment. And the second 
is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On 

22 



these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." 
It is not within my subject to discuss Paine's religion, but 
I want to lay these two statements side by side in your mind, 
that you may see, though others have called Thomas Paine an 
infidel, his confession of his faith contained all that Jesus Christ 
said was essential. 

Paine, on his return to America, found many bitter po- 
litical enemies. John Adams and his party, Paine had bitterly 
opposed; Adams was believed by Paine to desire the establish- 
ment of a hereditary office in his family, and both Jefferson and 
Madison appear to have given serious consideration to the same 
fear. At any rate, John Adams was fierce in his attacks on 
Paine and he received in return cutting replies, but even with 
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and many other powerful friends, 
still a broken old man, in only moderate circumstances, he was 
at terrible odds with the power of the orthodox in religion and 
a great political party bitter against him. While he was able 
to strike with his pen he could hold his own, but he had no 
heir to protect his good name and, as I have shown, his reputa- 
tion was simply pounced upon and destroyed unscrupulously, 
and since then each thoughtless writer has quoted and made 
more blighting the slanders. Mr. Conway has at last refuted 
every charge; the best and most reliable evidence shows that 
Paine never drank to excess, except once in Paris, when his 
friends were being guillotined one after the other, then, after- 
wards he toid a friend, "that borne down by public and private 
affliction he had been driven to excesses," but the story of his 
dying a drunkard has been disproved. 

Even to this day there are men who seem to be unable to 
do Paine justice, deeming it necessary, apparently, to follow cus- 
tom, by neglecting or abusing him. There has been published, 
within the last five years, a very excellent history of The Decla- 
ration of Independence, and many of the letters and statements 
that I have quoted may be found in that volume, but if you 
consult it you will find that Paine or "Common Sense" is not 
to be found in the index until a reference occurs to a sneering 
statement from John Adams' biography. There are fifteen or 
more quotations commending and crediting Paine with great 
power and influence, even one, from John Adams himself, be- 
fore he became Paine's enemy, but the otherwise very complete 



index does not refer to them and the author makes no comment 
except to Paine's prejudice. 

It is not possible, in one afternoon, to give anything like 
a clear idea of the greatness, the breadth, the nobility of Paine's 
life and works. When he was called a libeller by the authori- 
ties in England for his "Rights of Man," he said, "Let every 
man read and judge for himself, not only of the merits and de- 
merits of the Work, but of the matters therein contained, which 
relate to his own interests and happiness. If to expose the 
fraud and imposition of monarchy, and every species of heredi- 
tary government — to lessen the oppression of taxes — to pro- 
pose plans for the education of helpless infancy, and the com- 
fortable support of the aged and distressed — to endeavour to 
conciliate nations to each other — to extirpate the horrid prac- 
tice of war — to promote universal peace, civilization, commerce 
— and to break the chains of political superstition, and raise de- 
graded man to his proper rank; — if these things be libellous, let 
me live the life of a libeller, and let the name of Libeller be en- 
graved on my tomb." 

Mrs. Bonneville said to the dying Paine: "You will be 
buried on your farm." "I have no objection to that,'' he said, 
"but the farm will be sold and they will dig my bones up be- 
fore they be half rotten." "Mr. Paine," she replied, "have con- 
fidence in your friends. I assure you that the place where you 
will be buried shall never be sold." Paine's power of prophecy 
still proved good concerning his bones; their travels and fate 
is an interesting story of itself. 

Your society is now carrying out a part of the promise 
made to the dying patriot. Here he lived and here a part of 
his mighty brain still moulders. His heart is lost somewhere 
on the earth, which may not now be regretted, for living, it 
beat for the whole world and so, even in death, it happens, no 
land can claim it. Ah! well may we cherish this spot sacred 
to Paine the Patriot. Perhaps his dream will come true, and 
when there is a Republic of the World, here will be the shrine 
of all nations. 



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